New grantees start work to put social justice at the heart of the AI Act Implementation
We’re excited to announce 10 new grants to organisations working to ensure social justice is central to the implementation of the European AI Act. This outstanding group of consumer, human rights, and tech justice organisations will strengthen national civil society networks, make sure technical standards comply with fundamental rights, and empower creative workers against the unauthorised use of their work by generative AI companies.
The grantees were selected from 61 applications submitted through an open call and will receive grants of up to €60,000. The AI Act Implementation grants are part of our €4m Making Regulation Work Programme that challenges harms and secures accountability over the use of AI in Europe. We currently see a huge anti-regulatory push, in the belief that looser laws will help ‘fix’ Europe’s perceived economic and social woes and drive innovation. Instead, a lack of guardrails around the use of AI harms the most vulnerable, limits access to essential services and weakens consumer and labour protections.
As AI use by people, businesses and governments rapidly increases, this is a pivotal moment to protect people’s rights and hold AI makers and deployers accountable. Civil society’s engagement with governments and European institutions will shape the future—ensuring people can challenge unfair AI-driven decisions and preventing harmful AI products from flooding European markets. The impact of the regulation, however, will be determined by the capacity and resources our grantees and other public interest organisations secure to engage in its implementation and mobilise amidst a regulatory backlash. That’s why we’re stepping up to resource this time-sensitive work.
The AI Act Implementation grantees will help bring civil society’s proposals for AI regulation across the finish line, building on the extensive work done by our grantees and other organizations during the negotiation phase. To support the implementation and enforcement stage, we commissioned a report by the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL), highlighting opportunities for civil society engagement and offering guidance for philanthropy to fund this work.
Meet the AI Act Implementation grantees:
BEUC – the European Consumer Organisation | Making the AI Act work for people | €45,540, Europe
Since 1962, BEUC has been helping to secure better rights for consumers in Europe. As the voice of 44 independent national consumer organisations from 31 countries, BEUC is uniquely positioned to bring the concerns and expectations of people to the attention of EU policymakers and to secure better protections for them, both independently and in collaboration with civil society and other stakeholders.
With support from the EAISF, BEUC aims to ensure that AI systems are respectful of European fundamental and consumer rights and values, and that consumers are able to enjoy a fair, healthy and innovative society.
Center for Democracy and Technology Europe | Convening Key CSO and EU Institutional Stakeholders on EU AI Act Implementation | €30,000, Europe
CDT Europe is a Brussels-based organisation that works to uphold fundamental rights and the public interest in tech policy. It promotes policies, laws and technical designs that empower people while protecting against discriminatory and exploitative uses.
With EAISF support, building on the coordination CDT Europe steered during the AI Act negotiations, they plan to bring together key civil society organisations and decision-makers to discuss and collaborate on key AI Act milestones to ensure we collectively work towards its successful implementation.
epicenter.works | Advancing Social Justice in AI Act Implementation: Establishing Austria as a Model for EU-wide Rights-Respecting Standards | €30,050, Austria
epicenter.works is a civil rights organisation advocating for privacy, freedom, and digital rights across Europe. With a history of impactful action, including challenging AI use in welfare decisions by Austria’s Public Employment Service (AMS), epicenter.works promotes a social justice and rights-based approach to technology. With the support from the EAISF, the organisation aims to foster social justice and the rule of law in AI regulation in Austria.
Federación de Consumidores y Usuarios CECU | Empowering Consumer Advocacy for Effective AI Act Implementation | €15,280, Spain
CECU, a key Spanish consumer organisation, advocates for AI Act implementation focusing on Fundamental Rights Impact Assessments. Leveraging its role in IA Ciudadana coalition, work with European Digital Rights (EDRi) AI Core Group, and collaboration with BEUC, CECU aims to protect consumer interests through research, policy, and advocacy. By actively engaging in the AI Act negotiations, CECU has contributed to policy discussions, advocacy letters to authorities, public campaigns and stakeholder meetings. The grant will allow CECU to enhance its role in AI Act implementation in Spain, promoting transparency and public involvement to advocate for fundamental rights.
Hermes Center and the Good Lobby Italy | Your Face Your Rights | €60,000 Italy
Hermes Center and the Good Lobby Italy are members of the Italian Digital and Human Rights Network and partners in the Reclaim Your Face campaign. Thanks to EAISF funding, they aim to efficiently coordinate and strengthen the Network and increase their capacity to engage on the AI Act implementation process, notably:
- identification/establishment of a human rights authority,
- guidelines for managing redress mechanisms,
- national regulation of biometric surveillance systems and development of its enforcement structure.
Homo Digitalis | G.A.I.N. - Greek AI Implementation Network | €48,000 Greece
Homo Digitalis has formed key alliances with civil society groups at EU and national level, including European Digital Rights (EDRi), consumer, refugee, LGBTQI+, Roma, climate, disability, child, and youth rights organisations, among others. The AI Act implementation phase underscores the need for the civil society to continue to work together in a more comprehensive and structured manner to promote social justice. The project "G.A.I.N" aims at uniting expertise, knowledge and know-how, and build collective strategies towards this goal.
Lafede.cat – Organitzacions per a la Justícia Global | Catalan and European advocacy for human rights protections in AI Act implementation | €59,000, Spain
Lafede.cat has worked at the intersection of human rights and AI for four years, focusing on power imbalances and rights-based vulnerabilities. Their advocacy spans national and regional levels: from coordination of the “Public Space” group within the IA Ciudadana coalition, participation in the 'Intelligent Borders' task force led by AlgoRace, to serving on data and AI ethics committees of the Catalan Government. With this grant, Lafede.cat aims to consolidate their efforts, particularly through collaboration in the 'AI Core Group' coordinated by European Digital Rights (EDRi).
Open Future | Empowering Creative Workers: towards a meaningful implementation of the AI Act’s copyright provisions | €41,375, Europe
Open Future is a European think tank that develops new approaches to an open internet that maximises the societal benefits of shared data, knowledge, and culture. In the context of the AI Act and its implementation, Open Future is developing protocols for copyright compliance policies that establish meaningful, practical protections for information producers, creative workers, and other rightsholders. In the context of the ongoing unauthorised appropriation of creative labour, such protections are an important element of ensuring economic justice and fairness.
The Danish Institute for Human Rights and the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL) | Towards meaningful fundamental rights impact assessments of high-risk AI systems | €60,000, Denmark/Europe
The Danish Institute for Human Rights, a centre of expertise on business and human rights, has partnered with the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law, a leading CSO working on technology and AI, to influence the European Commission’s (EC) expected template on fundamental rights impact assessments (FRIAs). FRIAs are the main legal safeguard to ensure that high-risk AI systems which might violate fundamental rights are not deployed. The FRIA provision in the AI Act is relatively weak and amenable to a tick-box implementation approach. Influencing the template is therefore critical for ensuring that human rights are upheld in the implementation of the AI Act.